Author: Rick Heider

Rick Takahashi: Daiichi Pro Staff

Rick Takahashi

I love to tie and design fly patterns for the waters I fish.  I have been tying flies since I was eight years of age.  After taking apart my first fly (Royal Coachman) and seeing the hackle unwind, I knew that I wanted to learn how to tie flies.  I didn’t have the slightest idea what a fly was but knew it was for fishing because of the hook.  A couple of years later, my uncle bought me my first fly tying kit and I have been tying flies ever since.  My first attempts at tying flies was purely creative in nature, they did not represent anything known to man, I just enjoyed tying on the materials to the hook.  I didn’t know in the beginning that the flies where supposed to represent some sort of food stuff for trout thus my creation were pretty artistic and colorful.  I have been (more…)

Vincent Su: Daiichi Pro Staff

Vincent Su
Denver, Colorado
vincent.su@comcast.net

Vincent Su, is an outdoor enthusiast who lives in the Denver metro area.  Born in 1964, he did not know anything about fly fishing until 1997 introduced by his father in law.  He quickly grew to love both fly fishing and fly tying.  After catching the first fish with a fly tied himself, as a gear-head person, the excitement got him hooked and prompted for some innovations.  He is the inventor of the 720 Vise.  He also enjoys photography and by studying aquatic insects with macro photos, he has developed some of his own tying styles and techniques.  By learning fly fishing from tail water, in order to better match the hatch, he has developed his own hook size system.  In summer time, he’s rarely seen by other anglers as he likes to explore lesser known waters, especially pocket water fishing with dry flies in the mountains.  When it comes to fly tying, although he enjoys tying dry flies the most, he also likes soft hackle flies and life-cycle patterns, such as still-born flies and emergers. (more…)

Phil Rowley: Daiichi Pro Staff

Phil Rowley
Fly Craft Angling Adventures
780-464-5499
www.flycraftangling.com
www.stillwaterflyfishingstore.com

Phil has been fly fishing for over 30 years. His love of fly fishing has taken him across North America pursuing trout, Atlantic and Pacific salmon, char, pike, walleye and numerous other species on the fly. But Phil is best known for his stillwater exploits.

A former commercial fly tyer, Phil has written for almost every major fly fishing publication in North America. He has authored three books and numerous feature articles and two regular columns. Phil’s first book, Fly Patterns for Stillwaters is a best seller. In 2014 Phil was the proud recipient of a Life Time Achievement Award from Fly Tyer magazine.

In addition to his writing, Phil has four instructional DVD’s. In 2007, Phil was a member of the gold medal winning team at the Canadian Fly Fishing championships.

When he isn’t on the water Phil travels North America performing at outdoor shows, providing seminars, speaking to fly clubs and conducting fly-fishing schools. Phil also provides instructional stillwater guiding on the lakes located a short distance from his Edmonton area home.

Phil has appeared on a number of television shows including BC Outdoors Sports Fishing, Sport Fishing B.C., Fishing Alberta, Let’s Go Outdoors and Fishing with Shelly and Courtney.  Phil periodically co-hosts episodes of the New Fly Fisher, an educational fly fishing production.

Make a point of visiting or following Phil on-line at the above URLs and through his social media channels, You Tube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Jay Murakoshi
667 E. Cole Ave
Fresno, Ca. 93720
jaysflies@me.com

Jay Murakoshi has been in the fly fishing industry for over 47 years. Starting out as a
commercial tyer for Orvis, he also tied for most of the California shops at one time or
another. He has also tied flies for notable such as the late Lefty Kreh, Trey Combs and AndyMill. Nowadays, he sells his flies from his web sites…www.fliesunlimited.com.  He has a fly fishing business and hosts a number of fly fishermen each year out of La Paz, BCS. He also takes groups to Australia, Mexico (bass fishing), Belize and Christmas Island. He spends most of his timechasing salt water species such as roosters, dorado, yellow fin, bonefish, permit, jacks and snook. In his spare time at home his favorite species to chase are large mouth bass and carp.

His fly tying demonstrations and instruction are show-cased in North American
expositions, pro shops, and conclaves. He has designed a number of salt water
patterns using a synthetic material called wig hair.

He is on pro staff with Daiichi, TFO fly rods, RIO, Simms, Patagonia, Galvan Fly Reels, and Hareline.

Jack Neely: Daiichi Pro Staff

Jack Neely
11006 S.E 174 Loop
Summerfield, Fl 34491
352-245-4492 Home
352-207-6508 Cell
flytyerjack771@yahoo.com

Clubs and Organizations:  IFFF -Director of Florida Fly Tying 2004-2014,  Sun Shine Fly  Anglers,  Vice President.

I am 79 years of age and started tying at age 5.  By age 6, I was selling walleye flies to a local store.  I have fished in most states in the West, Mid West and North East USA.   I have also fished in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and the Gulf of Mexico, and  internationally in  Mexico and Brazil.   I have taught fly tying in Wisconsin, Texas, Pennsylvania, the New England states and Florida.  I have been teaching for 50 plus years.  At the 2014 Conclave I was awarded the President Medal of Excellence.

Why Daiichi?:  Superior products and people to work with.

William Myers: Daiichi Pro Staff

William Myers

I have tied flies commercially for about 30 years; tying trout flies and steelhead patterns for myself and with patterns for trout in several books. Some of my patterns were developed while guiding the Lower Deschutes and Crooked River in Central Oregon.

Why Daiichi: Daiichi Hooks – from the smallest dry flies to the largest steelhead and streamer patterns, I can always count on Daiichi for the strength and holding power I come to expect from this hook maker.

Jim Malo: Daiichi Pro Staff

Jim Malo

Jim began tying flies back in the 1950’s during the long winter seasons.  Whenever there was a big snow storm, Jim would tie until the wee hours of the morning as it was certain to have no school that day.  Dry flies were the order of the day and those Bass were going to be on guard as the bugs often attracted eight pounders in Lake Choggagoggmanchoggagoggchabunagunagogg; commonly known as Webster Lake.
Then early in April, Jim made the trek to Worcester’s Greenwood Street, to Paul Kukonen’s fly shop.  This was a blessing in disguise, as Paul actually sat and taught Jim the proper sequence in the tying process.  From then on, the rest was history. Beautiful dry flies and streamers made their way onto the waters of Maine and Massachusetts.
(more…)

Leon Links: Daiichi Pro Staff

Leon Links
Brempark 34
2724 HV Zoetermeer
The Netherlands

0031 (0)793424783
leon.links@planet.nl

Clubs and Organizations: VNV (Vereniging voor Nederlandse Vliegvissers),
GS (Grayling Society)

Leon Links was born in 1953 in Dordrecht, The Netherlands. He now lives with partner and daughter in Zoetermeer, close to Amsterdam. For a living he teaches Dutch language and literature.  In the mid-1960s Leon started fishing with flies in Norway during his summer holidays.  This made an immense impression on him.  From those years on he developed himself as a passionate fly fisher in his own country and abroad.  He has a preference for river fishing for trout and grayling. His favorite rivers are to be found in Norway, Sweden, Slovenia, Spain and Belgium.

Besides actual fly fishing, Leon is fond of fly tying, making photos of fly fishing objects, collecting and reading fly fishing books and writing articles for several magazines.  Leon has been a member of the editorial staff of De Nederlandse Vliegvisser, the Dutch fly-fishing magazine, for more than 25 years, specializing on book reviews and fly tying.  His articles are being published in Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Finland, England, Italy and South-Africa as well.  Besides that, Leon contributed to several fly fishing and fly tying books.
In 2002 his book Tying Flies with CDC was published by Merlin Unwin (UK) and Stackpole Books (USA).  Leon specializes in tying CDC flies and several other types of flies, traditional and innovative.  He sometimes does talks, workshops and demonstrations.  Actual fly fishing stays his main interest though.  Together with his fishing pal and close friend Hans van Klinken, Leon does several smaller and bigger projects like working on a website and making a new book.

Why Daiichi:  Leon prefers Daiichi hooks for several reasons. The quality is just outstanding, Daiichi hooks are sharp and never break. Daiichi has all models fly tiers need, some of them are unique like the new Klinkhamer and bomber hooks. Daiichi, moreover, listens very seriously when customers have requests or suggestions for improvement.

LeRoy Hyatt: Daiichi Pro Staff

LeRoy Hyatt
908 Tamarack Drive

I have been a commercial tier for over 30 years.  I tie approximately 600 dozen flies a year.  Some of the shops I tie for have asked what brand of hook I use and I am always proud to tell them Daiichi.  I have never had a shop request another brand of hook.

Why Daiichi?  I like the way they perform.  I fish quite a bit and I have never had a hook fail.  I very much like the mini barb on Daiichi dry fly hook #1180. (more…)

Vic Hadley: Daiichi Pro Staff

Vic Hadley
540 Montara Way
Eugene, OR 97405
541-345-1263
vichadley@msn.com

Club: Cascade Family Fly Fishers
Organizations: International Federation of Fly Fishers

Being a third generation Oregonian and growing up in Paisley, Oregon provided me with a life style that encouraged my interest in fishing, hunting, and a sense of adventure.  I started fishing when I was three or four years old, and started fly fishing with my Dad when I was seven or eight.  This interest has stayed with me my whole life.  I started tying flies in 1971 and have been tying ever since then. I have been demotying, and teaching classes for adults and kids for many years, and continue to do so.  I was honored in March 2014 at the Oregon IFF Expo with “The 2014 Fly Tyer of the Year” award.

Why Daiichi: I picked Daiichi hooks because of their sharpness, strength, and variety of sizes and styles
available.